Bird species diversity in Phu Khao Tong Area, Kang Khoi District, Saraburi province

Abstract

The main objectives of this study were to examine bird species diversity in 5 different types which were forest, reservoir, grassland, agricultural field and residential area as well as to investigate biological and physical factors that many affect bird species in those habitats. Species diversity of birds in Phu Khao Tong area Kang Khoi District, Saraburi Province were monthly assessed by point count method from January 2008 to December 2008. The total number of bird species in the study area is 103 species. The number of bird species for a grassland, an agricultural field, a residential area, a reservoir, and a forest around Phu Khao Tong area were 73, 64, 55, 46, and 38 species respectively, and Shonnon-Weiner diversity index were 3.39, 3.37, 3.14, 3.06, and 3.01 respectively. The most similar in bird species between two habitat types was that between the agricultural field and the residential area with a Sorensen’s similarity index (S) of 0.78 while bird species in the forest and the residential are was least similar with the similarity index of 0.47. Moreover, a biological factor that showed correlations with the bird diversity and bird abundance was human disturbance (Pearson correlation = -0.725 (p = 0.00) and 0.528 (p = 0.01) respectively) while all physical factors investigated in this study did not correlate with bird diversity (p ≥ 0.05). Since in this study the grassland contained the highest bird diversity, the habitat type found between mountains should be preserved for bird corridor, however, those located near main road may be used for the constructions of infrastructure. At the present time forests in Phu Khao Tong area were on the process of restoration, so disturbance by human on these forests should be minimized.